As you explore the beautiful region of Aetia in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, you may want to act as a tourist and take photos with a photo mode. Other open-world games such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and Genshin Impact have done it before. Thankfully, there is some sort of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 photo mode, but it’s more simplistic than you’d hope.
How to take Xenoblade Chronicles 3 pictures
Nintendo is often behind the times when it comes to features like a photo mode, so whenever the publisher does attempt to include one, it often is the most basic route except for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. That’s what has happened with Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Anytime during battle or while running through the wilderness of this beautiful open world title, press the L and R buttons at exactly the same time. There will be a flash on the screen, taking a snapshot of the visuals without the cumbersome UI.
You won’t be able to pause the action, unfortunately, and you won’t be able to alter the positioning of each character, like in the Atelier Ryza series. Instead, you’ll have to operate the in-game camera live while the game continues. Be warned, you may come across some pesky creatures around the world that want to fight you while you’re trying to take a picture.
How to get the right camera angle in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
You can operate the camera by zooming in, or moving the screen vertically. To make the camera move up and down, hold ZL and then tilt the right stick left or right. Then, if you want to zoom in, hold ZL and tilt the right stick up or down. The neat thing is that you can move your character with the left stick to get the right positioning. Once you’re ready, take the photo with the L and R buttons being pressed together.
You can also change to the character that you’d like for the picture by holding ZL and then tapping L or R.
For a first-person view of the environment, you can actually zoom the camera in all the way. You can get some spectacular photos of the stunning mountain ranges and other biomes that developer Monolift Soft has created. In fact, you can even get a first-person view of combat as you’re facing a tough beast or boss from Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
You can also change the time of day within the options of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Go to “System” and then “Change Time” to turn the lighting to dawn, day, dusk, or night. In addition, you may alter the costume each character is wearing as well.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s photo mode is not the best of the bunch, but it’s certainly functional. Hopefully, the next game in the series will pause the action and have different post-processing styles to choose from in a menu. Oh well, at least we can change the difficulty\ at any time.